Highly controversial when it opened in 1958, The Birthday Party is one of Pinter’s least subtle plays. Set in a seaside boarding house, it is part black comedy and part whodunit, with the central action literally happening in the dark. Like all great literature, it asks timeless questions: How can we be sure that anyone is who he says he is? Is it ever possible to pin down the truth of the past? And can we ever escape our deepest fears?